ENG771: Folklore and Literature in Oceania: Introduction

When searching for Oceanic narratives, it is useful to keep the following definitions in mind, many of which come from the academic discipline of Folklore Studies. When using the library's OneSearch tool, these terms can help to refine your searches for specific types of stories -- though sometimes the terms end up being used interchangeably, they do each have a more specific meaning. One simple way to search for traditional narratives is to do a keyword search a keyword using OneSearch's default search setting ("any field" and "contains"), combining one of the terms below, along with a geographic place (or a deity's name). For instance folklore Palau or myth Tangaroa. A rich source for traditional stories is children's literature -- if you're looking specifically for books of this type, you can start with the same keyword searches and include either "juvenile" or "children" (for instance, folklore Palau juvenile). After you've done your search, you can use the "Resource Type" limit on the left of the search results to types of publications -- books, dissertations, journal articles, etc. -- and call also use these filters to check for resources that are available online. *Note: This type of keyword searching is not a perfect search, for a variety of reasons: For one, authors and publishers don't themselves always use terms like "folklore" and "myth" in the same way that academics do -- in other words, they often use some (or all) of the terms below interchangeably.

• Folklore: A broad term used to refer to the traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people, which have been passed down orally (or via other non-written means such as dance, theater and etc.).
  • Example: Tales from the South Pacific Islands
• Myth / Mythology: The particular category of narrative deals with the point where the human world blends with the supernatural; the stories often feature interactions between gods and human beings. In oral cultures, these narratives often speak of the origin of things -- the creation of the world, the creation of the things in the world, the ways in which human beings came to live in specific places, the ways in which human beings came to possess technologies like fire. The main characters are often gods or demi-gods.
  • Example: Marianas Island Legends: Myth and Magic
• Legends: A traditional narrative that is believed to have an historical basis.
  • Example: The Fish of Maui
• Fables: A story with a moral point. Often includes animals that speak or act as humans.
  • Example: See "The Snake" in Fagogo: Fables from Samoa in Samoan and English
• Tales: The term "tales" is sometimes used interchangeably with "legend," "myth" or "folklore." Also sometimes "folk tales" or "fairy tales."
  • Example: Pacific Folk Tales (audio recording of tales from the Solomon Islands and Tonga)
• Cosmogony: Theories specifically about the origins of the universe.
  • Example: The Kumulipo mind : a global heritage : in the Polynesian creation myth
• Cosmology: Theories more generally about the universe, throughout its existence, rather than specifically about its origins.
  • Example: History, Cosmology And Gender: Christianity And Cultural Change Among The Urapmin Of Papua New Guinea
• Origin: Having to do with ancestry based on scientific evidence of migration.
  • Example: Made in Taiwan [videorecording]
• Antiquities: Generally refers to scholarly works that discuss "pre-history" (the era before written histories of a place are available). Sometimes used to refer to things like archeological reports.
  • Example: Archaeological excavation in Tofol, Kosrae eastern Micronesia : ground-truthing oral history at site Ko-A11-32.
• Ethnology: A branch of anthropology that deals with the division of human beings into races and their origin, distribution, relations, and characteristics.
  • Example: The threshold of the Pacific : an account of the social organization magic and religion of the people of San Cristoval in the Solomon Islands.
• Juvenile literature: Use this term to look for children's books. It is a style of writing often used to share folklore.
  • Example: Tuhurahura and the Whale
• Oral Tradition: Describes material that is based on spoken rather than written sources, which is how these stories were originally shared.
  • Example: Legends, traditions and tales of Nauru : a transcript of a series of lectures delivered by native teachers